Video Review: My 50 and 200 free

I'd like to play devil's advocate on the high turnover, or much higher turnover issue on the 50m. Our client here masters the Distance Per Stroke variable. That's his weapon. 14 strokes to go, 18 to come back. It's the 18 strokes to come back that raised my attention. Not sure if our client can really follow you guys advices of increasing turnover by a lot, without loosing more water. Increasing the turnover requires the fitness to support this higher turnover without loosing water. 18 strokes that's already a lot of strokes on a 25. Increase the turnover by a lot and you'll see what's going to happen. This 18 will become 20 or 21. Few numbers (averages will do): 27.71 seconds / 32 strokes gives you a turnover of 69.28 SPM Turn this 69.28 into 72 (which is not a **much** higher turnover but just a reasonably higher turnover) and you're already down to 26.66 Increase it up to 74 and you're now down to 25.94 Increase it up to 80 and you're down to 24 flat Now. Cut a stroke and keep 69 and you're down to 26.9 31 strokes / 71 RPM = 25.83 Keep 31 strokes and increase the turnover by **much**, say up to 86 and you're down to under 21.64 (which was once Popov's world record). I agree that Q should increase his turnover, but not at the cost of DPS. He should not sacrifice a single stroke per length in this equation in my opinion.

That said, I was really impressed with your 50 time given your torpid turnover. You are obviously doing some magic under the water. That's one thing that struck me too. I know, it's tempting to recommend him to increase drastically his turnover on this distance but at the same time, if he was happy with the time... Increasing turnover has a sharp impact on velocity if you don't loose your dps in the equation. Increasing it slightly could bring him to 27flat and even under, especially if he can use little more of this magic and come back on 16-17 strokes instead of 18. And short term, that can be done with a better commitment of the kicking department (on the 2nd 25) I would love to see Q attempting the 100 with this 50m as a first split, with this turnover and a more efficient kick. That's under the minute and a joy to see.

Did you mean on entry, or do you have a timestamp that shows it well? Unfortunately, I don't have a timestamp and I'm not as skilled with video as Mr. Thorton. On entry your left hand crosses over then slashes left. If I were Mr. Thorton, I could show you a still picture with the hand at about shoulder level several inches outside your bodyline--like a whale with it's side fin extended (not that you remotely look like a whale or that any whale was harmed in the composition of this message:bliss:). From that outlier position your hand does come back nicely under your torso. My point would be this: something is causing you to fishtail slightly. Again, if I were skilled, I could show you a picture from your video of how you torso curves, like an elongated "C" during sections of your stroke. I do one arm drills to check my hand position and to feel how my shoulders should roll. I find it really hard to swim flat doing one arm drills. :2cents:

Kirk, I don't play golf, but I should. SolarEnergy, don't worry about it. My DPS will drop as I increase my turnover, but I know how to get it back. There is a happy medium somewhere, that playing golf will help me find. Mike, Yeah, my left hand has poor entry, I thought you meant that I crossed under my body during my pull. My fishtail is probably caused by a weak left side (compared to my right), where I don't get a good grasp on the water and I lack the kick to compensate for it. I would probably drop over a second on my 50 if my left side was as good as my right side.

I commented in your blog that it must have looked like you were swimming a 1500 instead of 200 based on your split and after seeing the video I'll stick to that! You really, really need to crank it up. Even the 50 looked a little too controlled. The fact you swam a 27 low with that kind of turnover is impressive. I think if you can keep your sound stroke mechanics, but increase your stroke rate you will improve a lot.

Do you ever do "swimming golf" 50s? Those are the ones where you add your time to the number of strokes you took and try to get the lowest total. Try to do sets of these where you get faster, but don't increase your stroke total. This will ensure that you are increasing your stroke rate but maintaining the good distance per stroke that you already have.

Jim, Do you think that the problem is primarily with my left side? Now that you mention it, I do see less rotation on your left side. I don't mean to make too big a deal of it--in fact, it may be a false lead entirely. But when I was trying to more or less globally process your stroke, something struck me as just a little tight, which seemed paradoxical given how relaxed you look. So then when Paul also mentioned the lack of rotation, that struck me as maybe being what I was sensing. Tonight at practice, I tried to see how much I rotate in my own stroke (not that I would recommend anybody use my stroke as something to emulate). But it occurred to me that the nipple on the recovery side should almost reach the surface if the water, if not even pop out temporarily for a quick breath of air. Perhaps you could try swimming this way--no joke, nipple breathing analogy notwithstanding--to see if it helps your rotation, and if increased rotation has any beneficial impact on your performance. One other thing I will also second: a bit of a quicker high elbow catch might be worth investigating as well. The Grant Hackett YouTube videos show this extremely well. You clearly have the speed to do well in the 200. It may be that you hyst need to brutalize yourself with much harder practice sets to get the conditioning up enough to sustain this speed for one nature's most fiendish distances... best of wishes in your pursuit of self-brutalization!

On your solo workout days, Just do good 20 Mid pool 25s working on fast turns! I did 2 turn 50s today :)

How did it feel? I remember Ricky Berens saying in an interview that he feels like he is blacking out on his last 50. It was cake. I did a fast 200 scm at Lifetime today from a push after warm up and a kick set. Time: 2:20.xx. I mentioned this in my initial post. Foreward: My 50 was a good time for me, my 200 time I have actually beat in practice from a push. I have been getting some great commentary so far, but trying to analyze my strategy during that 200 is kinda meaningless. It could easily be said that I wasn't mentally present for the 200. Both the 50 and the 100 hurt more than the 200. I didn't even know that was possible. You are right, the 200 should hurt a ton.

But it occurred to me that the nipple on the recovery side should almost reach the surface if the water, if not even pop out temporarily for a quick breath of air. Perhaps you could try swimming this way--no joke, nipple breathing analogy notwithstanding--to see if it helps your rotation, and if increased rotation has any beneficial impact on your performance. Jim, this is a really good reference point for rotation. My nipples happen to be rather symmetrically placed on each side of my body at a fixed point. I can use that reference point to figure out how much difference there is between my right side rotation and my left side rotation and correct my left side to match my non breathing right side nipple elevation.